I've written about health care for more than two decades, starting from my native Iowa where I covered the presidential campaign bus rides of Bill and Hillary Clinton through the Hawkeye state talking health reform and the economy. I have covered the rise, fall and rise again of health reform, chronicling national trends as well as the influence of Barack and Michelle Obama from Chicago's South Side on changes to the U.S. health system from my base in Chicago. I am the author of the new Forbes signature series book, "Inside Obamacare: The Fix For America's Ailing Health Care System." I was health care business reporter at the Chicago Tribune (1998-2011) and previously wrote for Modern Healthcare magazine when first arriving in Chicago in 1993. Prior to that, I wrote for several Iowa newspapers including the Des Moines Register. These days, I contribute stories to the New York Times, Chicago Medicine magazine and teach in the University of Iowa School of Journalism MA in Strategic Communication program. You can see me nationally on Fox News Channel's "Forbes on Fox" show. In Chicago, you can hear my health segments and business analysis on WBBM newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM. I am passionate about health literacy when it comes to explaining the complexities of health care. A better understood health system may save someone some money or their life.

Ad Spending On Obamacare May Make Don Draper Blush

The amount of money that will be spent beginning this summer by insurers, states and the federal government could reach billions of dollars, giving big business to Mad Men like Don Draper. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As states and the U.S. government prepare to market health plans to the uninsured, a feeding frenzy has begun among advertising and marketing agencies clamoring to get a portion of promotional spending that could reach billions of dollars.

The potential windfall to ad, PR and marketing shops could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars just from government business alone to market the online marketplaces where consumers will begin enrolling in health plans on Oct. 1 of this year. And once ad dollars from private health insurance giants like AetnaAetna (AET), CignaCigna (CI), HumanaHumana (HUM), UnitedHealth GroupUnitedHealth Group (UNH) and Blue Cross plans are included from their efforts to reach a new market of uninsured, the ad spending could reach into the billions of dollars.

A snapshot of the spending on everything from television and radio to billboards and social media can be seen in President Obama’s home state of Illinois where just this week more than a dozen marketing, advertising and public relations shops emerged in the bidding war for marketing contracts to educate Illinois residents on that state’s insurance exchange, known as the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace where uninsured will buy policies later this year. Here’s a link to all federal grants, including funds for marketing, that have been allocated to states across the country by the Obama administration to set up their marketplaces.

And that’s just the marketing and advertising. The $30 million to $35 million comes from a federal grant worth $115 million that will also include funds Illinois can direct toward community groups and other organizations for various outreach about the marketplace. The grant also includes $4 million for a call center and millions of dollars more that is being set aside if the state has to build its own web site (Illinois’ exchange will be operated and created by the federal government until its legislature comes to agreement on how a state exchange will be set up).

The barrage of advertising across the country is expected to begin this summer.

“It’s going to be Black Friday for health insurance,” Michael Mahoney, senior vice president of consumer marketing for GoHealthInsurance.com, a technology company with a platform used for purchasing health insurance, told Forbes in an interview. “Just like the holiday shopping season has its rush, this is going to be a rush to be the first mover to get out in front. Most people have heard about the Affordable Care Act but they have not seen any messaging from the government or private entities about what to anticipate next.”

The Obama administration says states may use federal grants for marketing activities that include “production and distribution of brochures, direct mail, print ads, social media, and digital/online ads, and TV and radio buys” related to their exchanges. Here’s a link with more detailed information on use of federal funds for marketing.

Whether the ad and marketing spending will be effective is another story.

“If people don’t know when open enrollment is and they don’t buy into the system, it doesn’t work,” Mahoney said. “We need to move to a society where everybody is buying it.”

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Between state and federal law, it is quite clear that those selling healthcare under the Affordable Care Act need to be licensed health and disability insurance agents in each state. Obama can hire the SEIU, but the law still requires a license.

NO – as a business owner I’m screwed. My employee health care premiums have already risen 24% because of the “added mandated coverages” under this plan.

If even one of my employees decides to go to a health care exchange instead of using what I provide, I am fined. There are multiple taxes in the bill that apply to me.

Because of that, and continued government TAXATION AND REGULATION, I’m shutting my doors end of this year. I am tired of being the city, state, county and federal government’s tax cow, and I’m tired of being vilified by this administration and the press for making something of myself and providing for my family.

In short, there is no longer any incentive for me to work. 122 jobs lost and all the taxes they, and I paid.

Sad isn’t it when the government actually puts people out of work because a politicians vote down a straight party line that they know is not right for the country. No one and I mean no one should bitch and complain because there are no jobs since the majority voted for the current administration. They didn’t do their homework to actually read and study the statistics. I tried to educate on this policy/law/tax which will kill thousands of jobs. POTUS wants to socialize all of America and it’s businesses. Obama doesn’t have to worry because he is a multi-millionaire and his accountant saves him thousands in taxes. The American public that voted for him deserve what they get, the rest of us who work our asses’s off have to suffer.

I case you haven’t noticed, we are not capitalist any longer. You might want to look at the definition of capitalism.

Our banks are government backed so they can do whatever and get bailed out. We have corporations that are “too big to fail” which the government allowed via mergers, etc. and they get bailed out. Our entire economic system is currently one giant bailout and government backed.

So now that this monstrosity is rearing its ugly head, we’re sticking our heads in the sand and blaming capitalism; which is just about the exact opposite of what this bill is doing-forcing people into business with private corps., regardless of whether they want it or not. Yes, yes, it’s that damn capitalism again. Makes as much sense as blaming sickle cell anemia.

Please say you were being sarcastic. If not, it means you think the ins. co’s are spending billions on an ad campaign to get new customers which will “hurt”, as you put it, those same profiteers spending billions. People can’t be this dense….

Last time I looked AARP was liberal. They supported this 100% even though they knew that seniors on Medicare were going to get screwed to pay for the FREE portion of the bill. AARP will make about $8 MILLION per year off this bill.

Republicans, during the “health care” debates wanted to explore coops. Their example was Group Health Cooperative in Washington State. It has provided low cost, premium health care for over 30 years. Yet the Democrats wanted none of that. They wanted full government control..

You people are so brainwashed by the media and government that you no longer know what the truth is so you blame everyone but the government, which is the cause of most all our ills.

If these people are uninsured now, maybe they can’t afford health insurance….so how are they going to be able to buy Govt. induced health insurance? It’s a great idea to have every person covered with health care, but not forced to buy it from our Govt.

Did I understand BILLIONS to advertize/ This has to be wrong I know if they were going to spend BILLIONS on ad space they would never do something stupid like that instead they would use it to pay insurance premiums etc.or something else to be more beneficial.

Interesting. You include a photo of a fictional character from a program set int he 60′s, something baffling on it’s own. And you don’t even bother to reference the actor who plays the fictional character, relying instead on his character name.

What the heck does anything about “Don Draper” have to do with this story, other than the subject of advertising?

This thing is a disaster just waiting to happen. Get rid of it before it cripples our country with higher premiums, longer wait times and really angry physcians who will not care less about your treatment and just write you a script and send you on your way. All of these people who became Physcians worked damn hard, made alot of sacrifices and spent alot of money pursuing their “american dream”, only to have it being taken away from some “idiot” who thinks that all people should be at the same level of class … except for the ones making the rules of course.

Many doctors in my county are no longer accepting Medicaid and Medicare patients. This is already going on. Another 5% and quitting practice and retiring because they are being told how much they can make for their expertise.

One of our local hospitals is bankrupt and for sale because they are treating so many welfare and illegals they can no longer keep going.

Disaster waiting to happen is not even close to an accurate description. Heading for economic collapse and third world state is about the bottom of it.

I’m shutting my doors on my business end of this year. 122 jobs lost. I cannot no longer afford to keep my doors open and pay for all these government schemes, regulations and taxes. I no longer have a incentive to work.

This is how this groups of tyrants in Washington has worked for years. They force laws on the states they know the states cant afford. When the states start yelling the federal government comes in as big brother with our tax dollars to help them. They become dependent on that money to enforce that law. Whenever they get fiesty and want their own state powers back, the feds will then threaten to pull the federal tax money away from them and leave them broke. Thus they keep them under their control. We have a cess pool in Washington full of nasty worms.

This shows just how poorly this health care plan was thought out. Like Pelost said,Quote You must pass a bill before you can find out what is in it. 2000 pages + 20.000 pages of regulations.Now you can see why it was rushed through. Now you see why Buffet an all other insurance groups including ARRP were soo keen on passing this bill. Now all these cost will be passed on to us.

I would think with all these big $ figures,that the republican party would be proud of Obamacare. Their wealthy donors are making biggg $. And after all that is what the rep. party is all about ,making the rich ,richer.

Are you being sarcastic? Anyway, the way this thing was written, insurance companies are now restricted to charging someone who is older no more than 3 times what they charge their youngest clients….. so projections are, older clients will see a small decrease in their premiums due to that, but it will cause a large increase in the premiums of the younger clients and a more moderate increase in the 30 – 45 year old clients. That was of course, before you figure in the mandated additional coverages required by ACA, not to forget no more gender price differences, so you males will now be subsidizing the maternity coverage of all females!! It’s quite likely that everyone’s premiums will increase as a result. Before you start bashing on the health insurance companies, by law they are required to spend at least 80 to 85 cents of every dollar they collect from their clients directly back to paying health insurance claims. What other industry is “allowed” to only keep 15 – 20 percent of their income to pay for all of their taxes and administration expenses??? This whole thing is out of control ….

if you voted for obama you are in for a real surprise if you are older than 65 and on medicare. within 3 years your medicare that he has raided to pay for his welfare health insurance to the tune of 500 billion dollars will be reduced from paying 80% of your health care to 60% and instead of you paying roughly 350.00 per month your health care supplemental insurance is going to bloom into a 800.00 dollar a month in premiums. any person on medicare that voted for this president,has worked all their life, been a responsible citizen is going to welfare them selves because you cannot afford this price increase and that is exactally what he wants , a nation on welfare that you will support because you are on it. good luck you will pray for a republican president one day and pray you were on that voucher they offered instead of your welfare plan.

This is ridiculous! A “forced” medical insurance will now run ads? Shameful! This will be shoved down our throats day after day on every known site to man and some we’ve never heard of. I’m all about reform, but let’s step back and take a few minutes without the Presidential Executive Orders! No matter what, we were doing to be force fed, and the middle class American is yet again, paying the price. Going after small businesses and forcing them to pay for medical insurance is not much different than the Mafia forcing “protection” with “our people”… Scarey huh?

1) Now we know why the insurance providers like Obamacare: its a cash grab. 2) The word “grant” means: money you do not have to pay back. 3) This will all lead to bigger federal spending deficits. 4) What a freak’n fiasco.

Before we turn this beast loose (Obamacare), why don’t we postpone it a year and fix the troublesome pieces and parts. It isn’t perfect and it is going to affect every single person in this country. Getting it right is more important than meeting a deadline.

It’s important for the government to spend billions of dollars on propaganda supporting this train wreck of a program because simply letting competent people evaluate it doesn’t bode well for obammy and his minions.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Joseph Goebbels

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Man they are talking billions more in expense… really…. Can we please impeach this azzzz clown? Better yet lets stop spending money we can not afford to spend, and stop over printing dollars without the gold to back up whats being printed. America is about to find out what the Great Depression was all about, and it will not be an easy fix.

1. Millions are and will lose the insurance Obama promised they could keep. Because ObamaCare forces employers to offer expensive Cadillac plans but also offers the option of paying a fine for not providing health insurance that can be cheaper than providing it, between seven and twenty million Americans are likely to lose their health insurance coverage according to the Congressional Budget Office. The original estimate was closer to four million.

2. The cost of healthcare premiums is about to further skyrocket. Premium costs have already exploded, but that is a slow-motion explosion. In the near future, we could see costs double or worse. Naturally, these costs will hit an already burdened middle class hardest.

3. Lost jobs. Lost jobs.

The Federal Reserve’s March beige book on economic activity noted that businesses “cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff.”

Meanwhile, human resources consulting firm Adecco found that half of the small businesses it surveyed in January either plan to cut their workforce, not hire new workers, or shift to part-time or temporary help because of ObamaCare.

4. Potential doctor shortages that will mean rationing: The healthcare industry is already a bureaucratic quagmire. ObamaCare is about to add steroids. As the profession becomes tyrannized by government, the talented people currently practicing medicine plan to get out sooner than expected. Who knows how many will choose not to get in.

Doctor shortages are what lead to the nightmare known as rationed care. Here’s an unsettling example already being practiced.

5. Somewhere around $800 billion in tax increases will hit America’s middle class. This added burden will not only further oppress a middle class already reeling from a drop in wages over the last few years, but could damage the overall economy.

6. Inflation, the cruelest tax on the poor. When businesses get socked with added costs brought about by higher taxes and burdensome government mandates, they pass those cost along to the consumer in the form of higher prices.

7. Added bureaucracy. Even those Obama lapdogs over at the Washington Post’s Wonk Blog are admitting that applying for health care is about to get more burdensome than the byzantine paperwork involved in buying a home.

8. To cut costs or to avoid having to provide insurance, workers on the economic margins are already losing hours, which means a lower paycheck. There are a million sad stories in ObamaVille; here are just a few of them.

9. ObamaCare is projected to add $6.2 TRILLION to a deficit the GAO has already declared “unsustainable.” That’s “trillion” with a “t”.

10. More taxes than currently estimated are likely to hit because of situations like this one.

Three years ago, Obama, Democrats, and his media lied to us about cutting the cost of health care, being able to keep our insurance, and not taxing the middle class.

Today, those lies and what ObamaCare is and will do to the working and middle class are the biggest untold story in America.

The govt becoming more involved in health care is the reason the costs have increased. So…Govt creates a crisis, then provides a solution that comes at the expense of liberty and freedom, costs trillions, and by most accounts won’t solve the problem but in fact make it far worse.

Capitalism will only make a lot of people lazy. Anyhow, why should there be any ad spending when the government could just use of social media sites for free? They could just put a trending topic and send mails to twitter or facebook or google. Segue: Vivek Sood stated in his book The 5-Star Business Networks innovation is important for business to flourish so to be able to be less accountable and responsible to the employees health care, employers need to change their tactics, they need to innovate ways to hide from Obamacare

The problem with the Exchanges is simply this. It will sign up generally people less healthy than those in the overall population covering healthcare spending. This would extend over all age groups signed up, because of the characteristics of the uninsured population vs the insured, not because of any lack of enrollment of a younger age group. Further, adults under age 26 can be insured under parent’s coverage, and other so-called young adults would not be interested, save for the really sick. It should be noted that each age group insured in the Exchanges would basically pay their own age-groups’ rate, and little if any subsidy would come from a younger age group. The problem is that even with the outlawing of pre-existing medical conditions exclusion, the uninsured group is distinctly different and would likely remain so. Thus rates on the Exchanges would need to be always higher than than those for the population insured elsewhere. See “Personal Health Care Spending by Age Group and Type of Service, Calendar From the paper: “U.S. Health Spending By Age, Selected Years Through 2004.” By Micah others. Health Affairs, November 2007. https://www.cms.gov/

What is stupid about all this is that the government thinks it is right to advertise Obamacare on the people’s dime. They are really loose on spending American money. They need to heed such activities and know that it is the people’s money to keep the government running for the benefit of the people. Not to produce propaganda.